It seems to me that the important issue here is what is the most appropriate form of navigation for large multi-page documents.

We need to ask, how will users navigate the content. In my experience, navigation by links to content blocks (e.g. chapter and section titles) is usually most appropriate. I think it is rare when users need to navigate by page number.

But I can imagine cases (e.g. you can find the answer to your question on page 132), where page navigation is desirable. But in these cases, PDF is usually preferable. And PDF readers have built-in page navigation.

If a large document must be provided in HTML, and must be navigable by page reference, then the implication is that the user (when beginning his session) already knows what page he/she wants. In that case an edit field seems more useful that a large drop-down list.

I believe the list showed with google search results will be a better choice which is almost near to your first option.

Thanks & regards
Rakesh
On 1/30/11, adam solomon < <EMAIL REMOVED> > wrote:
> What is the best way to implement a simple yet accessible paging. The
> two standard ways I see all over the place are:
> 1. set of numbers, each one a link to that particular numbered page,
> with arrow links to navigate to different sets of pages.
> 2. dropdownlist with all the pages, and a button next to it - choose
> the page number and press go.
>
> I personally prefer the second option - simple and to the point, and
> easier to markp up correctly. Yet, I am worried about a situation
> where there are many pages (500) and a keyboard user would have to
> navigate all the way down with arrow keys. The truth is that this is a
> problem even in the numbering paging - the user would have to suffer a
> number of postbacks before getting to the correct set of pages.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> --
> adam solomon
> linkedin <http://il.linkedin.com/pub/adam-solomon/24/449/a4&gt;
> blogix <http://adam.blogix.co.il/&gt;
>